


While father looks away

by yeahwrite



Category: Marvel (Comics), Venom (Comics)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Carl Brock needs to Perish, Childhood Memories, Emotional Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Religion, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Rivalry, children who do not fully understand baptisms trying to explain baptisms, references to parental abuse, this was originally supposed to be a flashback in something else but got too long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 17:51:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16686289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeahwrite/pseuds/yeahwrite
Summary: In a house with an emotionally abusive father, who fluctuates only between either paying no attention to his children at all or expressing disappointment with them, it can be hard for those kids to feel alright.To feel like happy, regular kids, just like every other child in the neighbourhood seems to be.But sometimes, just sometimes, in those circumstances when their father isn't around...sometimes, Eddie and Mary Brock can at least feel like something just that precious bit closer to that.





	While father looks away

**Author's Note:**

> As said in the tags, this was originally supposed to be a very short flashback for another Venom thing I'm writing...but it escalated.
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading all the same!

Quiet little sniffles from a little boy not wanting to be caught crying.

After all, _boys don’t cry._

Father had made that _very_ clear.

One of the very few things he’d ever spent any effort in saying to him.

 _“Eddie!”_ He heard his sister yell, feet thudding angrily along the corridor.

“Eddie! Dinner’s ready! I spent _ages_ making it, so you better eat it this time!”

The boy briefly considered if he should try hiding somewhere in the room now to avoid her, but had no time to do so before the door flung open.

A _very_ cross looking Mary at the entranceway.

“Eddie! What are you-” She paused, face scrunching up in that way those of children do, whenever they don’t understand something.

“Are you _crying?!”_

“ _No!_ ” Eddie cried.

“What are you crying about?!”

“Shut up Mary!”

“ _You_ shut up!” She pouted, folding her arms.

“No, _you_ shut up!”

“I won’t! You’re the one crying!”

Eddie rubbed his eyes defiantly.

 _“Ugggghhh.”_ Mary rolled her head back, doing everything in her power to convey ultimate levels of annoyance and disgust.

“Why are your _eyes itchy_ then? My cooking isn’t bad!”

“It’s not about that.”

“So, you do admit it! You do! You can’t take it back now! You admit you’re crying about something!”

 “…shut up.” Was said much less strongly this time, as Eddie tucked his chin over his knees.

Mary started tapping her foot, but other than that his sister showed no signs of moving.

“Come on then, _spit it out!”_

“ _Mom!_ It’s about mom.”

The tapping stopped.

“ _Oh_.” Was sneered, as she prepared to start saying the sort of spiel, he knew his father told her, when he thought Eddie wasn’t listening.

“So, _you’re_ sad about mom-”

“I didn’t mean to kill her okay! I never meant to be a murderer!”

Quiet sniffles turned into sobs as the child buried his face in his hands.

“I didn’t _mean_ to kill anyone. I know mom was nice and I know I’m a murderer and I know that means I made everyone’s lives worse and I’m going to hell to burn forever and-and I’m sorry.” Eddie babbled, hiccupping from tears now as he shook his head over and over.

 _“I- you- mom - you!!!”_ Mary meanwhile, struggled to find something to snipe back with there, taken aback by how things had escalated and floundering.

She let off a deep sigh and instead stood there, simply watching instead.

And then, even crying and with his face buried, Eddie heard the click-clacking of school shoes turning on their heels and heading off down a hallway.

Leaving him alone and ignored _again._

And, annoying and mean as she’d been, Eddie found himself crying even harder at that.

…But then, there was the click-clacking of them coming back.

A knock on the door this time.

“Eddie?”

Then more impatiently, with a groan. “Eddie, _come on!_ I have something! I can prove you’re not going to go to Hell!”

That got the younger child looking up.

Mary seemed to take this as an invitation and entered her brother’s room proper then, holding something in one of her hands.

Then she daintily knelt beside him, brushing her polka dot skirt smooth with her free hand.

She then turned and, face a picture of seriousness, asked in a voice far too solemn for a child her age - “ _Promise_ you won’t tell dad about this, okay? Our little secret? I don’t want him to take it away.”

“Promise.” Eddie swore. 

Then, with that done, she presented what she was holding to Eddie.

“See this?!”

A picture of a baby and a woman standing at a basin-thing with the local church’s priest, who was the only one in the photo the boy recognised.

“Who are they?” He pointed at the other two.

“That’s me and mom! We’re at my baptism!”

Eddie looked at the picture with renewed curiosity.

“That’s what mom looks like?” He sniffled.

“Uh huh!” Mary nodded sagely.

Eddie reached out to try take it, but his sister moved it out of the way, this apparently being past her limits.

“Don’t put your grubby hands on it _stupid!”_ She yelped, before slowly moving it closer back into view again. “You can _look_ only.”

And he did, before eventually plucking up the confidence to ask – “How does this mean I’m not going to hell?”

“Well, do you know what a baptism is?”

“It’s like a public wash to join the church.”

“No – well…” Mary bobbed her head a little bit side to side as she struggled to debunk this.

“Well _maybe_ , but not _just_ that! It’s also how you know God likes you! And since you had a baptism too, that means he must like you, even if you are a massive pain! And if God likes you, it must mean he forgives you for killing mom, which means _you’re not going to Hell!”_

Eddie’s face became like that of a child on Christmas morning.

“ _Really?!_ I’m not going to Hell?!”

“Yeah stupid, so come down and eat the dinner I made and stop crying about- _hey!”_

Eddie had flung himself at his sister, wrapping his arms around her in a massive hug as he did.

“Thank you, Mary, thank you!”

Mary remained frozen for a bit, completely taken aback by this development.

Then slowly, cautiously, as if unsure of and entirely unused to the manoeuvre itself…she returned the hug, patting her little brother gently on the back.

“…You’re welcome Eddie.”

**Author's Note:**

> Eddie Brock not knowing what his own mum looked for years is in fact, tragically canon. There's a comic of him as a child where he thinks a church statue is in her likeliness, before finally being corrected by a kind churchgoer. (This does take place after that correction though).
> 
> Therefore, it looks like Carl Brock took down all the photos of her from around the house, making the one Mary has here hidden contribrand.


End file.
